As applied to vector-borne disease control, the term community participation has been broadly interpreted.

Community-based vector control projects have been described as having both active and passive components.

Recently, community participation in organized efforts to control Chagas'disease has become more dynamic, with increasingly active involvement by local community members.

Chagas'disease is a particularly signiticant vector-borne disease problem in the South American countries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia, and health officials there are beginning to emphasize horizontal or decentralized approaches to control of triatomine vectors.